Investing.com – Belgium equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Services, Technology and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Brussels, the BEL 20 fell 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the BEL 20 were Umicore NV (BR:UMI), which rose 1.60% or 0.80 points to trade at 50.48 at the close. NV Bekaert SA (BR:BEKB) added 0.86% or 0.35 points to end at 41.66 and Proximus NV (BR:PROX) was up 0.68% or 0.20 points to 28.73 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galapagos NV (AS:GLPG), which lost 1.50% or 0.725 points to trade at 47.525 in late trade. Ageas (BR:AGES) declined 1.20% or 0.370 points to end at 30.435 and Delhaize Group (BR:DELB) shed 1.13% or 1.15 points to 100.70.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 82 to 54 and 9 ended unchanged on the Brussels Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.20% or 2.70 to $1329.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.31% or 0.14 to hit $45.82 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.19 to trade at $47.56 a barrel.
EUR/USD was down 0.54% to 1.1061, while EUR/GBP rose 1.01% to 0.8404.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.56% at 96.64.